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Three dishes accompanied by bowls of white rice.
An order at Patok By Rach.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

17 Fantastic Filipino Restaurants Around NYC

Epic family-style feasts, a casual sisig spot, and more places for a taste of the Philippines in NYC and New Jersey

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An order at Patok By Rach.
| Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

The cuisine of the Philippines brims with distinctive sweet, sour, and meaty flavors, displaying Spanish, Chinese, American, Dutch, and aboriginal Malay influences that date back over five centuries, making for one of the world’s greatest melting-pot cuisines. There’s pork galore, fermented fish or shrimp paste dubbed bagoong, seafood in sinigang (tart tamarind-flavored soup), and smoky grilled fish and meat. At most places, one can find sisig, a dish incorporating myriad pig parts, with lots of alternate versions deploying milkfish, tofu, or chicken. Another standard is halo-halo, a whimsical frozen dessert layered with jackfruit, evaporated milk, coconut gel, rice flakes, and coconut shreds, topped with ice cream flavored with ube, a purple yam.

In NYC, the number of Filipino restaurants is steadily growing, as the cuisine breaks out of its historical neighborhoods. One of those is a five-block stretch of Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside, known as “Little Manila.” And while Jersey City has a concentration of Filipino restaurants and bakeries in two distinct regions, the East Village and Lower East Side have a number of establishments, too. Here are some of the best Filipino spots around the area.

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Patok By Rach

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Patok By Rach, which describes itself as a Filipina restaurant, is located on the upper reaches of Broadway in Inwood, with plenty of parking space in the vicinity if you have a car. The menu has been pared down to the essentials — but rendered in distinguished form at reasonable prices. The lechon kawali (nuggets of pork belly fried in lard) is a highlight, and laing (taro leaves cooked in coconut milk) is a transcendently good vegetarian dish.

Three dishes accompanied by bowls of white rice.
Lechon kawali, barbecue skewers, and laing at Patok By Rach.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Bilao, referring to the basket for drying rice in Tagalog, was one of those restaurants that was born in the midst of the pandemic. The menu consists of greatest hits of the cuisine with breakfast, lunch, and dinner offered. Favorites included a fish congee called goto, kare-kare (an oxtail stew thickened with peanut butter and bobbing with green beans), and a sizzling sisig incorporating hog ear, jowls, and liver.

A black metal platter with minced pork parts and skin, plus a raw egg cracked on top.
Sizzling sisig at Bilao.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Tradisyon

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Until the 1980s, the Port Authority and surrounding vicinity was a haven for small Philippine turo-turo steam table cafes. So the location of Tradisyon in Hell’s Kitchen seems perfect. It presents Filipino food in fast-casual bowls. Recommended dishes include pork adobo with a boiled egg, and laing — taro leaves cooked in coconut milk. Wash it down with calamansi, a drink made with the miniature limes native to the archipelago.

Three small metal tables and six chairs in front of the restaurant.
Tradisyon is located on a busy stretch of Hell’s Kitchen.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Jollibee

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This fast food chain holds an element of nostalgia for many. Jollibee’s signature chicken joy — fried chicken with a side that can be spaghetti with ground meat and sliced hot dogs — is akin to a McDonald’s happy meal for many children. For dessert, Jollibee offers ice cream sundaes, but is better known for its fruity pies featuring fruits like mango, pineapple, and coconut. Other locations in Woodside and Jersey City’s Journal Square.

A Jollibee customer pours gravy on her Chickenjoy, a common use of the gravy.
A Jollibee customer pours gravy on her Chickenjoy, a common use of the gravy.
Rico Cruz/Eater NY

Dollar Hits

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This double storefront with one side devoted to carryout, the other to sit-down dining, is an LA import. In addition to steam-table dishes of a classic sort, and a pig head or two, it offers charcoal grilled brochettes for one dollar that include pig intestines, fried wontons, chicken hearts, and hot dogs.

Four skewers with pig intestine, hot dog, wontons, and chicken hearts.
Some of the dollar skewers from Dollar Hits.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Renee's Kitchenette

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Renee’s has been serving a broad range of Filipino staples — from chicken adobo and sinigang na baboy (pork soup), to rarer delicacies like dinuguan (pork blood stew) and chicharon bulaklak (deep fried pork-ruffle chips) — since 1992. But the restaurant’s specialty is the cuisine from the province of Pampanga, the birthplace of sisig and the breakfast bacon tocino. Renee’s has family-style specials thath are eaten kamayan feast-style with the hands.

A peanut colored stew with oxtails and green beans.
Kare kare — oxtail stew with peanut sauce — at Renee’s Kitchenette.
Renee’s Kitchenette

Amazing Grace Restaurant

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When Krystal’s Cafe closed in the autumn just before the pandemic, Mary Jane De Leon and Efren De Leon replaced it with Amazing Grace, boasting a far-ranging Filipino menu. Breakfasts featuring eggs, fish, and pork products are a focus, and so are skewers of Filipino barbecue. Other standards are also well-executed in a setting with a lunch counter ambiance, from oxtail kare-kare, to sizzling pork sisig, to seafood steamed, fried, stuffed, made into soup, or poached in coconut-milk.

Two very red kebabs on a white plate with a row of cucumber slices.
Pork belly and pig ear kebabs.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Launched on a side street in Little Manila overlooking the BQE in 1997, Ihawan has been an anchor of the Woodside’s Little Manila ever since. While a full menu of Philippine faves is available, the emphasis is on cooked-over-flame barbecue, presented with rice and a vinegary sauce. Barbecue is known as “ihaw-ihaw” in Tagalog, and here runs to skewers of pork, chicken, or beef and their offal.

Three red plates of meat on a green tablecloth.
A selection of barbecue from Ihawan.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Tito Rad's Grill

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Head to this spacious Woodside restaurant that’s been around since 2006 with Mario Albenio as owner and chef. It boasts particularly strong grilled options, like the tuna jaw or belly, along with skewers of chicken, pork, or sausage, all served alongside pickled vegetables. Most dishes are bargain-priced, and served with fluffy rice. Lively birthday bashes are common, so ice cream sundaes are another specialty.

Well browned fish with chunky red relish on the side.
Inihaw na panga (grilled tuna jaw).
Tito Rad’s Grille

Max's Restaurant

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Competing with the nearby Jollibee’s for chicken supremacy, Max’s Restaurant cooks up one of best rotisserie chickens in Jersey City. The chain restaurant has been a household name for this iconic dish since 1945. It’s also known for crispy pata (deep fried pig trotters), and other favorites like kare-kare.

The exterior of a restaurant with a red sign that says “Max’s since 1945.”
Outside of Max’s in Jersey City.
Max’s

Philippine Bread House

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Peruse a range of Filipino desserts, on the sweeter side and many starring ube, at this Jersey City favorite. Try some ensaymadas, buttery buns topped with shredded cheese and filled with coconut or ube; or pan de sal, a sweet bread roll sold as is or stuffed with a pork or coconut filling. Larger shareable treats include grape-hued ube cake and sapin-sapin, a coconut and glutinous rice confection. For something savory, there’s a self-serve buffet. Elma Santander founded Philippine Bread House in 1979, making it the oldest Filipino eatery in Jersey City.

Steam table with rectangular pots of various colorful dishes, brown, green, and yellow.
The steam table at Philippine Bread House.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Mama Fina’s

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An offshoot of an Elmwood Park, New Jersey, restaurant of the same name, Mama Fina’s has a casual counter service set-up. Chef and co-founder Aming Sta Maria and her husband Samuel Sta Maria run both locations, where the focus is on sisig served sizzling on a cast iron platter in multiple iterations (pork, chicken, squid, tuna, and milkfish). Other highlights include breakfasts like longsilog — a sweet and spicy sausage — served with fried eggs and garlic fried rice.

Sizzling sisig comes in a cast iron skillet.
Sizzling sisig comes in a cast iron skillet.
Alex Staniloff/Eater NY

Gugu Room

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Located on the Lower East Side, Gugu Room is a Philippine restaurant with Japanese flourishes refashioned as a cocktail lounge, and it’s loads of fun. Rock shrimp tempura is topped with caviar and served as a pair of tacos, but there are also more traditional dishes like barbecued brochettes of pork belly, longanisa sausage, and rib-eye; short rib or tofu kare-kare; and chicken adobo.

Three plates on a wooden table.
Some of Gugu’s dishes, including congee, rock shrimp tacos, and barbecued skewers.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Jayhan's Grill

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Located in Jersey City’s West Side neighborhood near a light rail line, Jayhan’s is neither a steam-table joint nor and old-fashioned sit down restaurant, but a modern bistro. Deep-fried items, grilled dishes, and seafood are three specialties, and you should consult the multiple chalkboards for daily specials. In the Filipino style, eating with the hands is encouraged.

A stew with meat and green beans stacked on top.
Jayhan’s deconstructed kare-kare.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Daniel vet Armando Litiatco opened up this cheery Carroll Gardens spot in 2016, the name of which is an acronym of “fresh off the boat.” The menu spans all manner of surf and turf, like peel-and-eat shrimp basted in 7-Up, butter, and garlic; pork sisig; and pork or chicken barbecue skewers, served with banana ketchup for dipping. The zippy aqua-tinted facade ushers diners into a compact but attractive space, with wicker chairs and mismatched china.

A plate of chicken in sauce with bay leaves sticking out.
Chicken adobo at F.O.B.
F.O.B.

Purple Yam

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Former Cendrillon chef Romy Dorotan, along with co-owner Amy Besa, opened this charming Ditmas Park restaurant in 2012, focusing on brighter and lighter Philippine fare with the occasional Korean flourish. Dorotan turns out the classics like lumpia Shanghai — a take on Chinese egg rolls — every bit as deliciously greasy as you would like, and chicken adobo, said to be the national dish. The vegetable-driven dishes are represented by grilled eggplant kulawo, a salad accented with green mango and presented sprawled engagingly on the plate.

An eggplant top visible on the upper right, with the body covered with shredded fruits and vegetables.
Grilled eggplant kulawo.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Phil-Am Kusina

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This Staten Island restaurant in the Rosebank neighborhood under chef Emanuel Imperial offers a mix of modern dishes — such as adobo chicken wings and sisig tacos, featuring crispy shells filled with minced chicken — alongside more traditional fare like kaldereta, a goat stew, and crispy pata, a deep-fried pig knuckle. Spring roll lumpia are served either fried, as is most common, or fresh with steamed skins.

A giant hunk of meat with chopped scallions on top in red gravy.
Humba — pork leg braised in pineapple.
Katherine Gaccione/Phil-Am Kusina

Patok By Rach

Patok By Rach, which describes itself as a Filipina restaurant, is located on the upper reaches of Broadway in Inwood, with plenty of parking space in the vicinity if you have a car. The menu has been pared down to the essentials — but rendered in distinguished form at reasonable prices. The lechon kawali (nuggets of pork belly fried in lard) is a highlight, and laing (taro leaves cooked in coconut milk) is a transcendently good vegetarian dish.

Three dishes accompanied by bowls of white rice.
Lechon kawali, barbecue skewers, and laing at Patok By Rach.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Bilao

Bilao, referring to the basket for drying rice in Tagalog, was one of those restaurants that was born in the midst of the pandemic. The menu consists of greatest hits of the cuisine with breakfast, lunch, and dinner offered. Favorites included a fish congee called goto, kare-kare (an oxtail stew thickened with peanut butter and bobbing with green beans), and a sizzling sisig incorporating hog ear, jowls, and liver.

A black metal platter with minced pork parts and skin, plus a raw egg cracked on top.
Sizzling sisig at Bilao.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Tradisyon

Until the 1980s, the Port Authority and surrounding vicinity was a haven for small Philippine turo-turo steam table cafes. So the location of Tradisyon in Hell’s Kitchen seems perfect. It presents Filipino food in fast-casual bowls. Recommended dishes include pork adobo with a boiled egg, and laing — taro leaves cooked in coconut milk. Wash it down with calamansi, a drink made with the miniature limes native to the archipelago.

Three small metal tables and six chairs in front of the restaurant.
Tradisyon is located on a busy stretch of Hell’s Kitchen.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Jollibee

This fast food chain holds an element of nostalgia for many. Jollibee’s signature chicken joy — fried chicken with a side that can be spaghetti with ground meat and sliced hot dogs — is akin to a McDonald’s happy meal for many children. For dessert, Jollibee offers ice cream sundaes, but is better known for its fruity pies featuring fruits like mango, pineapple, and coconut. Other locations in Woodside and Jersey City’s Journal Square.

A Jollibee customer pours gravy on her Chickenjoy, a common use of the gravy.
A Jollibee customer pours gravy on her Chickenjoy, a common use of the gravy.
Rico Cruz/Eater NY

Dollar Hits

This double storefront with one side devoted to carryout, the other to sit-down dining, is an LA import. In addition to steam-table dishes of a classic sort, and a pig head or two, it offers charcoal grilled brochettes for one dollar that include pig intestines, fried wontons, chicken hearts, and hot dogs.

Four skewers with pig intestine, hot dog, wontons, and chicken hearts.
Some of the dollar skewers from Dollar Hits.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Renee's Kitchenette

Renee’s has been serving a broad range of Filipino staples — from chicken adobo and sinigang na baboy (pork soup), to rarer delicacies like dinuguan (pork blood stew) and chicharon bulaklak (deep fried pork-ruffle chips) — since 1992. But the restaurant’s specialty is the cuisine from the province of Pampanga, the birthplace of sisig and the breakfast bacon tocino. Renee’s has family-style specials thath are eaten kamayan feast-style with the hands.

A peanut colored stew with oxtails and green beans.
Kare kare — oxtail stew with peanut sauce — at Renee’s Kitchenette.
Renee’s Kitchenette

Amazing Grace Restaurant

When Krystal’s Cafe closed in the autumn just before the pandemic, Mary Jane De Leon and Efren De Leon replaced it with Amazing Grace, boasting a far-ranging Filipino menu. Breakfasts featuring eggs, fish, and pork products are a focus, and so are skewers of Filipino barbecue. Other standards are also well-executed in a setting with a lunch counter ambiance, from oxtail kare-kare, to sizzling pork sisig, to seafood steamed, fried, stuffed, made into soup, or poached in coconut-milk.

Two very red kebabs on a white plate with a row of cucumber slices.
Pork belly and pig ear kebabs.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Ihawan

Launched on a side street in Little Manila overlooking the BQE in 1997, Ihawan has been an anchor of the Woodside’s Little Manila ever since. While a full menu of Philippine faves is available, the emphasis is on cooked-over-flame barbecue, presented with rice and a vinegary sauce. Barbecue is known as “ihaw-ihaw” in Tagalog, and here runs to skewers of pork, chicken, or beef and their offal.

Three red plates of meat on a green tablecloth.
A selection of barbecue from Ihawan.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Tito Rad's Grill

Head to this spacious Woodside restaurant that’s been around since 2006 with Mario Albenio as owner and chef. It boasts particularly strong grilled options, like the tuna jaw or belly, along with skewers of chicken, pork, or sausage, all served alongside pickled vegetables. Most dishes are bargain-priced, and served with fluffy rice. Lively birthday bashes are common, so ice cream sundaes are another specialty.

Well browned fish with chunky red relish on the side.
Inihaw na panga (grilled tuna jaw).
Tito Rad’s Grille

Max's Restaurant

Competing with the nearby Jollibee’s for chicken supremacy, Max’s Restaurant cooks up one of best rotisserie chickens in Jersey City. The chain restaurant has been a household name for this iconic dish since 1945. It’s also known for crispy pata (deep fried pig trotters), and other favorites like kare-kare.

The exterior of a restaurant with a red sign that says “Max’s since 1945.”
Outside of Max’s in Jersey City.
Max’s

Philippine Bread House

Peruse a range of Filipino desserts, on the sweeter side and many starring ube, at this Jersey City favorite. Try some ensaymadas, buttery buns topped with shredded cheese and filled with coconut or ube; or pan de sal, a sweet bread roll sold as is or stuffed with a pork or coconut filling. Larger shareable treats include grape-hued ube cake and sapin-sapin, a coconut and glutinous rice confection. For something savory, there’s a self-serve buffet. Elma Santander founded Philippine Bread House in 1979, making it the oldest Filipino eatery in Jersey City.

Steam table with rectangular pots of various colorful dishes, brown, green, and yellow.
The steam table at Philippine Bread House.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Mama Fina’s

An offshoot of an Elmwood Park, New Jersey, restaurant of the same name, Mama Fina’s has a casual counter service set-up. Chef and co-founder Aming Sta Maria and her husband Samuel Sta Maria run both locations, where the focus is on sisig served sizzling on a cast iron platter in multiple iterations (pork, chicken, squid, tuna, and milkfish). Other highlights include breakfasts like longsilog — a sweet and spicy sausage — served with fried eggs and garlic fried rice.

Sizzling sisig comes in a cast iron skillet.
Sizzling sisig comes in a cast iron skillet.
Alex Staniloff/Eater NY

Gugu Room

Located on the Lower East Side, Gugu Room is a Philippine restaurant with Japanese flourishes refashioned as a cocktail lounge, and it’s loads of fun. Rock shrimp tempura is topped with caviar and served as a pair of tacos, but there are also more traditional dishes like barbecued brochettes of pork belly, longanisa sausage, and rib-eye; short rib or tofu kare-kare; and chicken adobo.

Three plates on a wooden table.
Some of Gugu’s dishes, including congee, rock shrimp tacos, and barbecued skewers.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Jayhan's Grill

Located in Jersey City’s West Side neighborhood near a light rail line, Jayhan’s is neither a steam-table joint nor and old-fashioned sit down restaurant, but a modern bistro. Deep-fried items, grilled dishes, and seafood are three specialties, and you should consult the multiple chalkboards for daily specials. In the Filipino style, eating with the hands is encouraged.

A stew with meat and green beans stacked on top.
Jayhan’s deconstructed kare-kare.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

F.O.B.

Daniel vet Armando Litiatco opened up this cheery Carroll Gardens spot in 2016, the name of which is an acronym of “fresh off the boat.” The menu spans all manner of surf and turf, like peel-and-eat shrimp basted in 7-Up, butter, and garlic; pork sisig; and pork or chicken barbecue skewers, served with banana ketchup for dipping. The zippy aqua-tinted facade ushers diners into a compact but attractive space, with wicker chairs and mismatched china.

A plate of chicken in sauce with bay leaves sticking out.
Chicken adobo at F.O.B.
F.O.B.

Related Maps

Purple Yam

Former Cendrillon chef Romy Dorotan, along with co-owner Amy Besa, opened this charming Ditmas Park restaurant in 2012, focusing on brighter and lighter Philippine fare with the occasional Korean flourish. Dorotan turns out the classics like lumpia Shanghai — a take on Chinese egg rolls — every bit as deliciously greasy as you would like, and chicken adobo, said to be the national dish. The vegetable-driven dishes are represented by grilled eggplant kulawo, a salad accented with green mango and presented sprawled engagingly on the plate.

An eggplant top visible on the upper right, with the body covered with shredded fruits and vegetables.
Grilled eggplant kulawo.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Phil-Am Kusina

This Staten Island restaurant in the Rosebank neighborhood under chef Emanuel Imperial offers a mix of modern dishes — such as adobo chicken wings and sisig tacos, featuring crispy shells filled with minced chicken — alongside more traditional fare like kaldereta, a goat stew, and crispy pata, a deep-fried pig knuckle. Spring roll lumpia are served either fried, as is most common, or fresh with steamed skins.

A giant hunk of meat with chopped scallions on top in red gravy.
Humba — pork leg braised in pineapple.
Katherine Gaccione/Phil-Am Kusina

Related Maps